The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised up global oil demand forecasts for 2021 and 2022.
The current energy crisis could boost demand by 500,000 b/d compared with normal conditions through to the 1st quarter of 2022, the IEA said.
In 2022, the highest consumption is forecast to be in the Asia Pacific region with 37.2 million barrels per day, followed by the Americas with 31.1 million barrels and Europe with 14.2 million barrels.
Record coal and gas prices, as well as rolling black-outs are prompting the power sector and energy-intensive industries to turn to oil, which has pushed up global oil demand.
Global oil demand is expected to reach 96.3 million b/d in 2021 and 99.6 million b/d in 2022, IEA’s revised estimate shows.
As for world oil supply, the IEA projected a sharp rise in October, with the US’ output set to bounce back from Hurricane Ida, and the OPEC+ ready to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day for November this year.
Higher energy prices could lead to lower industrial activity and a slowdown in economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the IEA warned.